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The Fight Over Unions Enters the Home

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The Fight Over Unions Enters the Home SOMEBODY’S KNOCKING, SHOULD I LET THEM IN?: THE FIGHT OVER UNIONS ENTERS THE HOME Brendan Williams*† INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................351 I. WASHINGTON STATE: BATTLEGROUND OVER UNION REPRESENTATION ......................................................................................356 II. JANUS IMPLICATIONS FOR HOME CARE NATIONALLY......................363 INTRODUCTION Nationally, according to a2018 reportfrom the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, there are over 2 millionhome-care workers making a median hourly wage of $11.03 an hour.1 Due to these low wages, depressed by low Medicaid reimbursement where government is thepayer, “[o]ne in four home-care workers lives below the federal poverty line (FPL) and over halfrely on some form of public assistance.”2 Roughly 90% of home-care workers are womenandonly40% are white—immigrants account for nearly30%oftheoverall workforce.3 This workforce is growing as our society ages. As Soo Oh reported in Vox, “The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an increase of more than 1 millionnew direct care workers—personal care workers, home health aides, and nursing assistants—between 2014 and 2024.”4 The report also notes * Attorney Brendan Williams is a nationally publishedwriter on health care and civil rights issues. M.A., Washington State University; J.D., University of WashingtonSchoolofLaw. † The author acknowledges his son, Blake, whogiveshim hope in uncertain times. 1. U.S. Home Care Workers: Key Facts,PARAPROFESSIONAL HEALTH INST. 2 (2018), https://phinational.org/resource/u-s-home-care-workers-key-facts-2018/ (last visited Dec. 4, 2018). 2. Id. 3. See id. at 3(listing 2016 demographic statistics for home-care workers where 15% are “U.S. Citizens by Naturalization” and 13% are “Not a Citizen of the U.S.” to account for thenearly30% of immigrants in the overall workforce). Home-care workers, once known as “domestics,” were excluded from theFairLabor Standards Act of 1938. Ariela M. Migdall, Home Health Care Workers Aren’t Guaranteed Minimum Wage or Overtime, and theLegacyofSlaveryIsthe Reason Why, HUFFINGTON POST (May 6, 2015), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariela-m-migdal/home-health-care- workers_b_7224080.html. They were only included by Obama Administration rulemaking. Michelle Chen, Home-Care Workers Are Now ProtectedbyMinimum-wage Laws, NATION (July 1, 2016), https://www.thenation.com/article/homecare-workers-are-now-protected-by-minimum-wage-laws/. But that legacy of legal marginalizationpersists. 4. Soo Oh, The Future of Work is the Low-wage Health Care Job,VOX (July 3, 2017), https://www.vox.com/2017/7/3/15872260/health-direct-care-jobs. 352 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 43:351 that “the poor are essentially taking care of thepoor.”5 These marginalized workers have been receptive to unionization in many states.6 In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Harris v. Quinn.7 The Court, in a 5–4decision, ruled that Illinois personal assistants providing long-term care in homes had a right to completely opt out of representationbythe Service Employees International Union (SEIU).8 In Harris,the Court expressed strong reservations about the1977 precedent of Abood v. Detroit Board of Education,9 “which held that state employees whochoosenotto join apublic-sector union maynevertheless be compelled to pay an agency fee to support union work that is related to thecollective-bargaining process.”10 Yetthe Court fell short of overturning Abood, distinguishing it by stating, “[t]he Illinois Legislature has taken pains to specify that personal assistants are public employeesforone purposeonly: collectivebargaining. For all other purposes, Illinoisregards thepersonal assistantsasprivate sector employees.”11 The Court declined to extend Abood, writing, “[i]f respondents’ and the dissent’s views were adopted, ahost of workers who receive paymentsfrom agovernmental entity for some sort of service would be candidates for inclusion within Abood’s reach.”12 Farfrom questioning theefficacy of union representation, the majority opinion, authoredbyJustice Alito, appearedconcernedthat it would be successful: In this case, for example, thecategoryofunionspeech that is germane to collectivebargainingunquestionably includes speech in favorofincreased wages and benefits for personal assistants. Increased wages and benefits for personal assistants would almost certainly mean increased expenditures under the Medicaid program, and it is impossible to argue that the level of Medicaid funding (or, for that matter, state spending for employee benefits in general)isnot a matter of great public concern.13 5. Id. 6. See, e.g., id. (notingsuccessfulattempts to unionize in Washington). 7. Harris v. Quinn, 134 S. Ct. 2620, 2620 (2014). 8.Id.at 2623. 9. Abood v. Detroit Bd.ofEduc., 431 U.S. 209, 211 (1977). 10. Harris, 134 S. Ct. at 2627 (citations omitted). 11.Id.at 2634. 12.Id. at 2638. 13.Id. at 2642–43. 2018] Somebody's Knocking, Should I Let Them In? 353 The Court held that “[t]he First Amendment prohibits thecollectionof an agency fee from personal assistants in the RehabilitationProgramwho do not want to join or supporttheunion.”14 Writing for the four dissenters, Justice Kagan wrote that Abood should control.15 She also noted, “[b]ecause of that bargaining, as the majority acknowledges, home-care assistants have nearly doubled their wages in less than 10 years, obtained state-funded health insurance, and benefited from better trainingandworkplace safety measures.”16 In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Janus vs. American Federationof State, County, &Municipal Employees (AFSCME),17 built on Harris and overturned the41-year-old Abood precedent.18 Like Harris, Justice Alito authored the 5–4 decision in Janus.19 Theplaintiff, Mark Janus, worked for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services as a child support specialist.20 Janus objected to union representation, in part, because it was too successfulinraising pay despite “the current fiscal crises in Illinois”21—a self-sacrificing, even noble, position somewhat beliedbythe fact that after thedecision Janus quit his job and joined aconservative policygroupas a “senior fellow.”22 Thegroupwas among what the New York Times described as “a WebofConservative Donors” that bankrolled thecase.23 In response to theargumentthat to fail to pay dues to theunion would result in “free riders” enjoying thebenefits of its advocacy, Justice Alito wrote that Janus “strenuously objects to this free-rider label. He argues that 14.Id. at 2644. 15. Id. at 2645 (Kagan, J., dissenting). 16.Id. at 2648. 17.Janus v. Am. Fed’n State, Cty., &Mun. Emps., 138 S. Ct. 2448, 2459 (2018). 18. Id. at 2460. 19. Id.; One wondershowthe25Senatorsofthe Democratic Caucus whorefusedto support a filibuster of Alito now feel. Senate Roll Call on Alito Filibuster, N.Y. TIMES (Jan. 30, 2006), https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/30/politics/politicsspecial1/senate-roll-call-on-alito-filibuster.html. 20. Janus, 138 S. Ct. at 2461. 21. Id. To be sure, Illinois is afiscal basket case. See, e.g., Editorial, Tell it Straight, Bruce and J.B., About the Pain Ahead forIllinois,CHICAGO SUN-TIMES (June 5, 2018), https://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/illinois-budget-rauner-pritzker-gubernatorial-election/ (“The state’s backlog of bills stands at $6.6 billion andthenewbudgetdoes littletoaddressthatproblem. And the state’s massive pension debt—more than $130 billion in unfunded liabilities—just keeps growing.”). 22. Rick Pearson, State EmployeeinMajor Union-undermining Supreme Court Case Will Join ConservativeThink Tank, Tour the Country,CHICAGO TRIB.(July 22, 2018), http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-janus-afscme-illinois-policy-institute- 20180722-story.html. 23. Noam Scheiber &Kenneth P. Vogel, Behind a Key Anti-labor Case, a Webof Conservative Donors, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 25, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/ business/economy/labor-court-conservatives.html. 354 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 43:351 he is not a free rider on abusheaded for adestination that he wishes to reach butismore likeaperson shanghaied for an unwanted voyage.”24 Again, Alito appeared to argue that publicsector unions had been too successful, complaining that “ascendance of public-sector unions hasbeen marked by a parallel increase in public spending.”25 He further complained of “the considerable windfallthat unions have received under Abood for the past 41 years. It is hard to estimate how many billions of dollars have been taken from nonmembers and transferred to public-sector unions in violation of theFirst Amendment. Those unconstitutional exactions cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely.”26 Furthermore,the majority decision requires government workers to opt into union membership: “Neither an agency feenor any other payment to theunionmaybedeductedfrom anonmember’s wages, nor mayanyother attempt be made to collect such apayment, unless theemployee affirmatively consents to pay.”27 In dissent, Justice Kagan accused the majority of “weaponizing the First Amendment,ina way that unleashes judges, now and in the future,to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.”28 Of Abood, she wrote: “More than 20 States have statutory schemes built on thedecision. Those laws underpin thousands of ongoing contracts involving millions of employees. Reliance interests do not comeany stronger than those surrounding Abood. And likewise, judicial disruptiondoesnotget any greater than what the Court does today.”29 Indeed, thedisruption cannot be overstated.
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